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70-year-old Marrero woman gets 5 years' probation for killing husband

Dora Adair main.jpg

Dora Adair, 70, of Marrero, was sentenced Friday to five years of probation for conviction of negligent homicide in the November 2010 death of her husband, James Adair, 67. She shot him once, during a fight in their home. She said the pistol accidentally fired, but prosecutors call it murder.
(JPSO)

She has been deeply remorseful." The Rev. Mike Kettenring of Visitation of Our Lady Catholic Church, of Dora Adair.

Convicted of negligent homicide for shooting her husband in their Marrero home, Dora Adair rose unsteadily from her seat in court Friday and tearfully faced the judge who was about to punish her. "I just want to say how sorry I am for the pain I've caused Jim's family and mine," Adair, 70, said. "And I pray that one day they can forgive me."

During an emotional hearing in which witnesses alternately asked for prison or leniency and spectators wept, Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Adair to five years of probation. Adair was convicted March 26 of shooting her husband during a domestic dispute in their Dueling Oaks Avenue home on Nov. 1, 2010. James Adair, a 67-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War, died days later from the gunshot wound.

Dora Adair spent eight days in jail, after she was indicted with murder in the case, until she posted a $500,000 bond. She stood trial on a charge of second-degree murder, stemming from her decision to retrieve a pistol from the couple's garage during the argument, cock the hammer and point it at her husband. As such, authorities said, she was an aggressor who could not claim self-defense.

Had she been convicted of murder, she would have spent the rest of her life in prison. But she said during the trial that the gun accidentally fired. The jury found her guilty of negligent homicide.

In prefacing her announcement on the punishment, Darensburg agreed with Adair's assessment. "To know you are responsible for his death is a punishment in and of itself," Darensburg said, adding that Adair must live with her actions "for the rest of her life."

"I am strongly convinced that she is missing him a whole lot," the judge said. "Do I think it was an accident? I absolutely think it was an accident."

Darensburg noted that Adair called 911 and sought help from neighbors. James Adair tried to cover it up, initially lying to an emergency medical technician about the shooting.

At most, his wife could have been sentenced to five years in prison for her negligent homicide conviction. Darensburg sentenced her to two years of active probation, during which she must participate in a court-sponsored probationary program, followed by three years of inactive probation.

Adair's attorney, Richard Richthofen, had asked Darensburg to overrule the jury verdict altogether and acquit his client. He also asked for a new trial. In both requests, he said, the evidence did not support the conviction. Both request were denied.

Assistant District Attorney Kelly Rish, who prosecuted the case with Megan Gorman, called the defense arguments "disingenuous," saying that it wasn't until the trial began that Adair asserted she tried to uncock the revolver, and that the shooting was accidental. Adair said no such thing to investigators in the three statements she gave earlier, Rish said.

Adair had said that her husband slapped her, after learning she had taken out a line of credit at a bank to pay for dental work. In court Friday, Jim Adair's sister, Joan Adair, disputed that account and said the argument probably stemmed from her brother's winning a $200,000 lottery days earlier, an amount he had to split with others.

"I'll never be convinced otherwise," she testified in asking Darensburg to give her sister-in-law prison time.

Joan Adair recalled the night of the shooting, when someone at Interim LSU Public Hospital called her to say her bother was undergoing surgery. The hospital worker would not say why, she recalled. "When I saw my brother, I knew he was gone," she testified. "There was just machines and someone I did not recognize."

Dora Adair's pastor of 10 years, the Rev. Mike Kettenring of Visitation of Our Lady Roman Catholic Church in Marrero, called her a "kind, caring, gentle woman," in testifying in her defense. "She has been deeply remorseful," Kettenring testified.

An associate of hers, Lee Vorisek, described Adair as "very trustworthy," saying she has handled his business checking account and babysat his children. A fellow congregant at Visitation of Our Lady, Delores Schaefer, said Adair has cared for a 92-year-old woman and asked for leniency. "I think she has so much more to give," Schaefer testified.